White House says middle-class Minnesotans could pay the price

In an effort to galvanize support for President Obama’s proposed middle-class tax cuts, the White House released new data Wednesday showing what’s at stake for taxpayers in Minnesota and other states if Washington goes over the “fiscal cliff.”

Apart from approximately 2 million middle class Minnesota taxpayers who would see their federal tax bills jump (an average of $2,200), some 542,000 low and moderate income families in Minnesota would lose the Child Tax Credit, worth an average of $1,000 a year.

On top of that, there are 203,000 middle-class Minnesota families that would no longer get help paying for college under the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which also is scheduled to expire.

On a lighter note, The Action, an Obama-aligned group that has been trying to pressure Minnesota Republicans in Congress to relent on raising tax rates for the top 2 percent, is planning to organize Minnesotans from around the state to sing “fiscal-cliff themed carols” at the State Capitol at 1 p.m. Thursday.

The group also is promoting an effort by Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz for force a vote in the U.S. House on extending the Bush-era tax cuts on the first $250,000 of income, something he says would help 100 percent of taxpayers, not just the bottom 98 percent.

So far, Walz has gotten 178 Democrats to sign on, but no Republican takers. He would need about two dozen defectors to get a vote of the full House.

A Duluth native who just barely lost Virginia's GOP gubernatorial primary said that politicians have not gone far enough in condemning the left for violence during a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville. "I think that the left is going to try to use this as an excuse to crack down on conservative free speech," said Corey Stewart. "I think they're going to try to use this as an excuse to remove more historical monuments."